Blenders for mixing frozen product, such as ice cream, to a substantially soft, smooth product are known. These known blenders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,503,687, 5,439,289, 5,067,819, 4,828,398, 4,974,965 and 3,352,543 respectively, in which a variety of additives such as fruits, nuts, biscuits, confectionary, flavourings, essences, etc can be rapidly mixed with a frozen product.
Whilst the above mentioned published patents had advantages over the prior art they have disadvantages, such as the use of a hand lever and/or belt/pulley/gear arrangement for the raising and lowering of the mixing bowl relative to the auger.